//------------------------------// // Bonus Chapter: Blood Diamond // Story: Clubhouse of Horror II // by Grenazers //------------------------------// There is an old tale of a curse diamond told among the diamond dogs. It is said that this specific came from the very depths of Tartarus itself. The old story says that the diamond is a demon that feeds on the conflict between species, killing each other for possession of this gem. This is how the cursed rock earned its name, Blood Diamond. Those who lay their eyes on this gem are put under its spell, they soon become obsessed with the jewel, wanting nothing more to have it for themselves. This leads to conflict with others who've seen the diamond and will end in bloodshed. For so long scholars just dismissed this Blood Diamond to be a myth, nothing more than somepony crazy imagination. And for a time many ponies believed as well since no evidence was found, supporting this thing's existence. However, unknown to those scholars this old myth will not only be real, but it was also found. This all happened on a normal morning in a village called, Horseville. The ponies of this small village were starting to wake up from their restful slumber, and were about to start their day. Then came the visitor, a unique kind visitor. Arriving at the front entrance of the village was a tall brown diamond dog. His body was covered in bruises and small cuts with blood leaking from the wounds. The dog himself was tired, evidence by him slowly walking into the small village. Upon seeing him, many of the villagers flee into their houses. It was terrifying for them to see a dog in their village since most of them never reach this far into Equestria without facing the border guards. The village leader orders the militia to confront the dog while their messenger heads to Canterlot. Gathering up their weapons the militia surrounded the lone dog asking what he wants. The dog didn't respond, instead it just collapses on the ground. The militia confused by this display dragged the dog's battered body into one of the sheds, they also tied the dog's arms and legs as well. With that taken care the villagers waited until the royal guards arrive. A couple of hours later two chariots full of guards arrived in the village. They got off the chariots and greeted the villagers, Captain Bronze Boot went to the village leader and ask him of the situation. The elderly pony told the captain all that happened this morning, then told him about the dog they are kept in the shed. Hearing this the captain took a few guards with and have them position outside the shed, he'll be going inside and interrogate their prisoner. Entering the shed, the pony captain saw that the dog was in no condition to talk. His body is badly injured and his mind must be woozy, as he kept saying random things. But, then his ears caught the words others, tunnels, and mountains. Captain Boot listens on to the dog's rambling, even asking questions in hope to make him talk more. After hearing enough, the captain left the shed and ordered his troops to gather the rest. When all the guards gathered in front of their captain, he explains the situation to them. From what he got from the dog, there are more of them located near the mountains. He then orders everyone back to the chariots and head towards the mountains. They reached the base of the mountain, the captain ordered the pegasus in his group to scout out the area. While the pegasus tooked to the air, Captain Boot leads the other ground guards up the hill. An hour later the pegasus return and inform the captain of their findings. Out of all the scouts sent, only one found something. That pony found a tunnel entrance near the top, he then told the captain about the dead diamond dogs near the entrance. Surprised by this, the captain advises everyone to be cautious. The group of royal guards quickly trotted up the mountain, watching out for anything that might attack them. They finally reached the entrance where the scout found. Like the pony said the entrance had dead dogs around. While the sign of a battle was quite evident, strangely enough there was no sign of the one who slain these dogs. He then at first thought it was a group of creatures, but seeing no other tracks aside the dogs, it could have been a rival dog faction. Entering in the tunnel the ponies encountered more bodies, littering across narrow mine. As they continued forward Captain Bronze Boot noticed that the dead dogs all bear the same insignia displaying their faction. Could all these dogs turn on each other, he asked himself. Seeing how vast the tunnel was, the captain order everpony to split up and explore each of the numerous channels. Captain Boot was paired up with Private Boulder Dash as they travel along the tunnels. The two ponies then encountered a wounded dog near death. The Captain went up to the dying mutt and asked him a few questions. The answers he got varied, the dog mumbled something about the killing, the back stabbing, and the chaos. The one thing he kept mentioning something about a diamond, the cursed diamond as he called it. The dog finally succumbed to his wounds and lay silent. With nothing more to gain from him the two continued on. They searched the entire tunnels and found absolutely nothing, except more corpses. With nothing found all the guards rendezvous back at the entrance. With the threat of the dogs taken care of, the Captain decided to stay in the village for the night and head back to Canterlot by tomorrow morning. The royal guards went back to the village and they were kind enough to allow them to stay in their village. Later that night the villagers set up a feast for the guards, they of course kindly accept their offer and joined the villagers in their feast. While eating, Captain Bronze Boot noticed Lieutenant Pole Star was constantly looking out the window. Then suddenly one villager burst in and exclaimed that the dog has escaped. Upon hearing this the royal guards got up and left to search the escape diamond dog. While they all spread out and searched the village, Lt Pole Star went straight for the building where they are all sleeping. Following his instinct the Captain followed the Lieutenant, he watched him enter the building and saw him going through his bags. At the same time the Captain saw something else enter the building, then the next thing he saw was his Lieutenant being attacked. He rushed in to help his comrade, he burst through the door and saw the Pole Star and the diamond dog fighting each other. From the look of it the pony was holding something and the dog was trying to get it from him. Their fight leads them outside, soon everypony heard the commotion and arrived to find the two viciously battling each other. The dog gave one strong punch and knocked the pony to the ground, releasing a bright shiny diamond from his hoof. The diamond caught everyponies eyes as they stared at the beautiful jewel. When the dog saw the diamond he stopped his assault on the pony and ran after it. He was stopped when two of the pegasus guards struck him from both sides, this was enough to knock out the dog. Lt Pole Star recovered from his attack and trotted to his unconscious foe with a scowl on his face. He raised his spear and aimed at the dog. He was about to finish him off, but Bronze Boot stopped him. He told him that they don't kill prisoners, and ordered him to put away his weapon. The Lieutenant grumbled for a bit, but halted when he forgot about the diamond. He looked up and saw everypony from guards to villagers staring at the diamond. He quickly snatched the gem and held it in his hoof. The Captain asked where he found the gem and pony responded by saying that he always had it. He was obviously lying, but decides to focus on that later, right now he has a prisoner to question. Telling the crowd of villagers to disperse he asked his troops to bring him some chains. Later the dog was slowly gaining consciousness, the first thing he saw was a pony in royal guard armor. Acting instinctively he tried to lunge at him, but was held in place by some chains. Seeing that the dog was up the Captain started questioning him, in particular what he was after. The dog angry and demanded his diamond back. Asking further the dog angrily told the Captain that Pole Star stole his diamond, confused the Captain allowed him to continue rambling. Soon the dog was calming down and was able to give more clearer answers. The dog's name was Rex and he told him about what happened to him and his pack. Rex explained that his pack leader found a perfectly crafted diamond in the mine. At first nothing happened, but then the dogs started acting weirdly. Soon the dogs became violent and were slaughtering each other for the diamond. Eventually Rex was the only one to survive and he dragged himself all the way here. He warned the pony that the gem was cursed and will only bring bloodshed to all who saw it. The Captain was not sure what to make of this situation, the dog was obviously insane, but if what he says is true than everypony in this village is in danger. Bronze then heard a scream from outside, he left the shed and saw a stallion thrashing on a mare. The Captain punched the stallion off the mare and stood in front of her. The stallion got up, but instead of charging at him he just ran off. Seeing him gone Bronze turned around to help the hurt mare, but then the mare punched him in the face. The mare continued her assault on the Captain, forcing him to take drastic action. Raising his two rear legs, Bronze bucked the mare off her. She landed her head on the shed wall, breaking her skull opened. The Captain got up and saw the bloody mess he caused, he then heard more screams coming from somewhere and quickly trotted towards the source. What met him there was absolute chaos, villagers and even his own guards were brutally fighting each other. In the center of it all was Lt Pole Star battling a couple of ponies while holding the diamond. Deciding to end this Bronze charge to the center and bash into the Lieutenant. He dropped the diamond and the Captain picked it up, but when he did he couldn't get his eyes off of it. He started to get strange a feeling of desires, as if he wanted nothing then, to keep this jewel for himself. He was abruptly pulled out his trance when somepony snatched out of his hoof. With the gem gone, the Captain suddenly felt a new emotion, this new feeling of rage. Bronze chased after the thief, when he got close he lunged at him. Pinning him down, the pony captain started to pummel the pony beneath him. He stopped halfway when he saw who the pony he was beating, Pvt Boulder Dash. Regaining his focus the Captain ordered the injured private to hoof over the diamond. Boulder Dash refused to and kept it around his arms. The Captain aggressively pried the shiny rock out of arms and left him on the ground. He was about to leave with the gem when he suddenly felt a stinging sensation coming his back. Turning his head he saw Boulder Dash with a knife stabbed in his back. The rage returned and he swiftly bucked the private in his face. The impact knocked a couples of Boulder's teeth out, he lay on the ground again beaten. Bronze Boot quickly trotted away the chaos around him, he soon found himself in a forest and was never seen again. "To this day many believe that Captain Bronze Boot's remains can be found in the Everfree Forest, the legend also says that he buried the blood diamond somewhere deep in the vast dark forest, waiting to discover again and unleash its turmoil." Spike finished his story. The three crusaders sat silently as Spike who is dressed as knight, finished his story. Then Applebloom quickly raised her hoof. "Yes, Applebloom?" he pointed at her. "Um yeah Spike, how did Rex knew Pole Star had the diamond?" "Um well you see,,," Spike tried to answer, but couldn't find any. Then suddenly Scootaloo spoke up, "yeah also seriously, Horseville?" "Well why not?" Spike responded, "If Ponyville is a real place why not Horseville?" Before the orange filly can speak up, Sweetie belle spoke up, "And another thing why was point of Boulder Dash? Was he supposed to be a close friend of the captain?" As the three crusaders plus one dragon argued over his story, down below Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Twilight looked and smiled. "Gotta hoofed to Dash, this was a great idea." Applejack complemented her blue pegasus friend. "Well what can I say, the little guy should really hang out with other kids," Rainbow explained. "Yes, I agree with Dash," Twilight remarked. "Spike is a growing child and read somewhere that interacting with other kids will help him grow up." As the three stood listening in, Rainbow realized that she never asked Twilight what her costume is. Glancing over to her, the purple mare was wearing a black robe and witch hat. "By the way Twilight, nice witch costume," said the blue mare. This earned her a glare from the purple unicorn. "Witch? I'm dressed as Arcane Abyss, the greatest sorceress that ever lived." she corrected her friend. "Well alright, but why did she looked like a witch?" asked Applejack . "It's because Arcane was around before the appearance of the witches, you see...." as Twilight gave a short lecture explaining why Arcane Abyss wore black and the history of witches, the three friends tuned her out and continued to listen in to the fillies and dragon's stories.